“A sunset is nothing more and nothing less than the backside of a sunrise.” ~Craig D. Lounsbrough
What a neat thought about sunsets and so true. When the sun is setting for me, it’s rising for someone else. If I stretch my thinking on this a bit, embellish it some, I can consider the end of a book as some the same. When I get to the end of one story whether I’m writing the story or reading it, then I can just start thinking about the next book to come. So in a way finding the end can open the door for a new beginning.
I’m thinking about endings because yet once again I have found those magic words “the end” to my work in progress. I wasn’t sure I’d ever hunt down those elusive words in this particular story. It’s not the first time I’ve thought that about a story. Sometimes the end just keeps sliding away into more story. But yes, I did type the end on Friday night. But then I went back on Saturday and stuck a little more in front of those two words. But as L. Frank Baum wrote in The Marvelous Land of Oz “Everything has to come to an end, sometime.” Even stories. Maybe especially stories.
I like the ending I wrote, but it’s still open to editing. I might tweak it a little more to make it better match this quote about best endings. Best endings are well, best.
“The best endings resonate because they echo a word, phrase, or image from earlier in the story, and the reader is prompted to think back to that reference and speculate on a deeper meaning.” -James Plath
It’s good to leave a reader happy with an ending. I certainly like good endings in the books that I read. I have read a few books where the ending made me want to sling the book across the room. I certainly don’t want to have that kind of ending on my book. It wouldn’t be good to start slinging computer monitors across the room. So perhaps I agree with this Oscar Wilde quote. “Everything is going to be fine in the end. If it’s not fine it’s not the end.”
I do have a few thousand problems as I head back to the beginning of the story to start editing. As usual, I was too wordy and now I have to trim thousands of those words from the story. I told you I had a hard time snaring those “the end” words. But I generally do have an overload of unnecessary words to cut out of my stories when I do finally get to the end. And while I would like to think my every word is good, I know that cutting the words the story doesn’t need will make my story tighter, easier to read and I hope better.
I’ve wondered as I wrote this story if I was going off track, but I’ve read most of it over now, and it isn’t half bad. There are a couple of chapters that are clunkers and need a major overhaul, but I’ve enjoyed running down the story road with my characters as I try to see if I stayed the course with them and told the story I intended to share with you, my readers.
Once I get the words trimmed and the story off to my editor then I can get ready for the release of An Appalachian Summer in a few weeks. Here’s a graphic my publishers did for me that looks like one of those sunsets or backsides of sunrises.
Do you like stories with good endings? Does it upset you if you read a book that ends badly for characters you like?
Comments 14
I haven’t read too many books that have bad endings although I always hope for a good ending so maybe i just pick books that have good endings,. I don’t really think about it although there have been many endings that were so bad compared to the book and those i do drop to the floor.
Author
I like endings that hold out hope for the characters even if things haven’t turned out exactly as they or I might have hoped. But when everything is bad and favorite characters are killed off just for the shock value, I’m not a fan.
I can’t wait to read your newest book, Ann! ~Proverbs 2~
Author
I can’t wait for you to read my new book, Emily. Thank you for wanting to read it and I hope you’ll like the story.
I think we all like a happy ending to a story because we get to feel the characters happiness with them. Characters become like friends to us and who doesn’t want their friends to be happy? Can’t wait to read the story you are creating now! 🙂
Author
Thank you, Hope. I so appreciate you reading my stories. It’s always such a relief to get to the end of a story I’m writing and then to discover that maybe the story works when I read it over and begin editing.
I do enjoy happy endings but there are some stories that require an ending that allow me to create my own ending. The old b/w movies that I love often left it to the audience to decide what the future held for the couple! I am looking forward to An Appalachian Summer!
Author
I suppose in many ways most books leave something up to the readers’ imaginations when they get to those words “the end.” What I don’t like is when a bad ending eliminates my hope for the characters I’ve come to love. I hope you’ll enjoy An Appalachian Summer, Connie, when you get to read it.
Sometimes endings disappoint, but isn’t that how real life is. We learn and grow from them and it shows God has a different plan. But…..aren’t happy endings just the best.
Author
True, Lucy. We do have plenty of ups and downs in life, and usually most stories have those ups and downs for the characters. However, I want the story to end on an up and not a down. Happy endings are the best.
I think everybody loves a happy ending…even “they lived happily ever after” ending is nice. But the best endings are the Real endings. The ones that make the story real and not a fantasy. The ones that make you want to read the next story. River To Redemption had such an ending. (I’d love to know how Adria is doing on her adventure!)
I’m looking forward to An Appalachian Summer. I just finished a book yesterday that was set in the hills of Kentucky, and I’m not quite ready to leave yet. I guess the best book endings are the ones that make you yearn for more of they same genre.
Happy editing, Ann! You have plenty of fans awaiting this new story.
Author
Thank you, Lavon. I appreciate your encouraging words. I do hope my new book will find plenty of readers, and I hope you’ll be one who’s glad you read it. Who knows? I might someday get to write more of Adria’s story. I have some things in mind that might have happened next.
Your idea of “real” endings is interesting. I would hope my stories have those sort of endings. Actually this is the final line in the story I’m working on right now.
No writer could come up with a better ending. Or not an ending at all. A beginning. Only a beginning.
And that is the way the endings of many books are. They have a promise of that happily ever after for a reader to imagine.
Yes, I love happy endings. And many times I am left wondering what happened next. Then I can’t wait for the next book in a series to come out.
Author
Most of my recent books haven’t been series books but stand alone stories. But it’s still fun to get to the end of a story and imagine what might happen next, Birdie.